Rooster Attack! Advice?

[tennessee]

I had the same thing happen a couple weeks ago from my RIR mighty rooster. I've had him since he was just a chick, and he has been great until recently. I let all my chickens free range for at least a few hours every day, and it was time to put them in their run, and I took feed and they were all following me to their home and for some reason he ran up and just bit me on the back of the leg. Brought the blood even through jeans. I kinda wrote it off and maybe he seen a bug or something (ladybugs are bad in my area right now) and didn't make a big deal. But it seems like ever since that incident he is just cocky as ever and acting like he is gonna attach every time I'm around him. Just today he even attacked my cat which he has been raised with and never bothered before, and he has fluffed up at me a few times and once he fluffed up and came toward me and I happen to have a plastic leaf rake and just pinned him down with it and held him for about a minute or so. That seems to have helped some. But if he does it again he is gonna be in with some dumplings or something soon. He is just now around a year old.

 

[easttxchick]

Quote:
This. The nicer I have tried to be to them, the worse terrors they have become.
I have 2 Black Sumatra roosters(notoriously gamey birds) that I started from VERY early on letting them know who's the boss around here. First wing drop I got, I gave the older one a whack so he knew to think better of it next time. Now he doesn't even want to come near me and that's fine. While I love my roosters and they are VERY WELL treated, this ain't a popularity contest, they are here because I allow them to be, not because they are entitled. Their job is to protect their flock-bottom line.
Another great tip I learned on BYC-I NEVER use a weapon(broom, bucket, etc.). I want them to be afraid of me, not a stick.

 

[gritsar]

Quote:
This. The nicer I have tried to be to them, the worse terrors they have become.
I have 2 Black Sumatra roosters(notoriously gamey birds) that I started from VERY early on letting them know who's the boss around here. First wing drop I got, I gave the older one a whack so he knew to think better of it next time. Now he doesn't even want to come near me and that's fine. While I love my roosters and they are VERY WELL treated, this ain't a popularity contest, they are here because I allow them to be, not because they are entitled. Their job is to protect their flock-bottom line.
Another great tip I learned on BYC-I NEVER use a weapon(broom, bucket, etc.). I want them to be afraid of me, not a stick.

 

[easttxchick]

I'm glad you agree, Kat(gritsar)-most of what I learned about roosters, I learned from you!

 

[silkiechicken]

Quote:
This. The nicer I have tried to be to them, the worse terrors they have become.
I have 2 Black Sumatra roosters(notoriously gamey birds) that I started from VERY early on letting them know who's the boss around here. First wing drop I got, I gave the older one a whack so he knew to think better of it next time. Now he doesn't even want to come near me and that's fine. While I love my roosters and they are VERY WELL treated, this ain't a popularity contest, they are here because I allow them to be, not because they are entitled. Their job is to protect their flock-bottom line.
Another great tip I learned on BYC-I NEVER use a weapon(broom, bucket, etc.). I want them to be afraid of me, not a stick.

I don't endorse "loving" on roosters either, but for the roosters who were "loved on" and turned out nice, I don't think the rooster felt like he was being loved on. I personally make sure my roosters don't even look me in the eye.

 

[Mervin]

Quote:
That worked for me for quite a while. Roosters are a right pain in the neck for the most part. I had fewer problems overall when I stuck with just having hens. Roosters complicate things.

We recently became a no rooster family. He didn't bother me so much, but I wasn't confident that my daughter (or wife) was willing to be assertive enough with the roosters. I understand their reluctance, but something had to change. I may have roosters again someday, but not until I'm sure everybody involved is willing/able to give out the "tough love". BTW...I tried to rehab the last one. I held him him down, held him upside down, chased him off food, chased him away from the hens, everything I ever read. He just got worse. I guess some roos are just like that.

 

[mychookschick]

Billickchix, can I ask that you try one more thing?

I have never actually tried it, but, there is a person, here on the forum, who swears by his/her method. It may seem harsh but, there are a LOT of people who have done it and never had a rooster attack again!

Here is what you do: 1) Have a bucket of water somewhere nearby the coop/run area.... 2) Wait for your rooster to come after you....3) When he does, grab him and hold him upside down by his feet.....4) Dunk him in the bucket of water (quickly, so that he doesn't drown) and pull him out, let him get a few breathes and do it once more!.... 5) Let him go and see what happens!

I wish I had known about htis method when I had the nasty-est roo you ever saw....

 

[AllAlaskan]

haha If I did that I would have a Roo-pop when I was done lol, it was 10f this morning.

 

[peanutgallery]

Wow! I just read all that has happened. My goodness. I didn't realize roo's got so aggressive! (we've had to watch our backs pretty much all the time when going into the chicken yard) Our roo pecked the back of my daughter's leg after she went to feed them and had a bit of a kicking match with him. He waited until she turned to leave then got her. This was in early Oct.

As we are learning, we didn't know really what to do as the chicks were growing and didn't interact really long with them which I began thinking wasn't the right thing to do. I want to be more friendly with our hens and so took advice from a BYC member yesterday when I went to their yard.

I stooped down to offer the hens some scratch from my hand and the roo (Forest is his name) attacked my arm. Good thing I had a jacket on as he only got that. Not quite too aggressive or he would have gotten my arm. I stood up, walked past him and threw the handsful of scratch to the hens as I usually do. He kept circling like he was trying to find a way to attack again. We got all of them in late April early May. I kept watching him and he kept watching me. When I was done interacting (made that a short visit because of Forest) I didn't have anything to protect myself from him and I was heading to the door he kept watching me, but I stopped at the door for a second and looked back. He was heading my way but not running.

My questions is.....how do you pick him up by the legs? You would have to surprise him in some way as he's on attack mode. As I'm sure this afternoon when I go out there he's gonna be in attack mode again. I understand the one post about not wanting to use a broom etc, but I'm thinking I would rather have something as I'm not a really big person. Forest is taller than my knees, about half my size. And my husband takes the morning duty and hasn't had a problem because he has done the match and won.

These previous posts make me leary, not only for me, but that Forest will continue to try to attack and we have grandkids that interact with the hens. The grands are 5, 6, 7, 8, 10 and 11 years of age (and another who is 8 but doesn't go to the chicken yard) so they are great prospects for Forest. Especially since I'm getting the message that he will continue to look for someone he can dominate and this will not stop. Is this true? He will continue?

 

[AlbionWood]

Good analysis here:
http://www.plamondon.com/faq_roosters.html
"People who are smart know that roosters only want rematches with other roosters. In addition, they remember they're people, and not roosters at all! The rooster is mistaken! It was all a silly misunderstanding! So the goal is to prevent the rooster from forming the opinion that humans are fellow roosters. The way you do this is simple: don't act like a rooster."

None of ours ever showed aggression toward us, but maybe we culled them before they got around to that. When they got mature enough to start hassling the pullets, we started pulling out the meanest ones. I didn't realize they matured (sexually) so much earlier than the pullets - that's why they start biting, to get the hens to squat. If the hens aren't ready, though, they just start hollering, and the rooster gets even more frustrated and aggressive. We pulled the cockerels out and put them in a separate pen, except for the ones that didn't bite the hens, so we ended up with the gentlest roos. And we never act like roosters!

Also we do not have kids. Plamondon's advice might not work for kids. I wouldn't let kids in with an aggressive rooster.